


wings

by buu



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 05:35:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2570054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buu/pseuds/buu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At first, Hinata doesn't mind. He doesn't even notice half the time, too busy running around and scraping his knees and bringing home stray cats to worry about something as silly as whatever is sprouting from the backs of his classmates. They look cool, sure, and it's a big deal whenever one of the kids in his class grows theirs in, but Hinata can't sit still long enough to worry about when his will come.</p>
            </blockquote>





	wings

**Author's Note:**

> this is really dumb but i've always had a weakness for wingfic and haikyuu is great for it...this is based a little on wing-process from haibane renmei which is such a beautiful and underappreciated anime!! please watch it!!! watch it and imagine haikyuu au
> 
> i was about to go to sleep when i sat up and remembered i half-wrote this and so i.finished..it ε-(´・｀)

Hinata is what his mother calls a “late bloomer”, although the term doesn't make him feel any better about being the only kid in his class without wings. He knows it's not uncommon for them to grow in later than most, but each year that ticks by, those with wings outnumber those without more and more and eventually Hinata is left by himself, the only one left in his class who hasn't grown wings.

At first, Hinata doesn't mind. He doesn't even notice half the time, too busy running around and scraping his knees and bringing home stray cats to worry about something as silly as whatever is sprouting from the backs of his classmates. They look cool, sure, and it's a big deal whenever one of the kids in his class grows theirs in, but Hinata can't sit still long enough to worry about when his will come. They will, eventually, like everyone's do, and he has more important things to worry about, like catching his favorite show on TV.

It's only in middle school when it starts to become a problem. Nearly all of his classmates have theirs by now, and his mother has started giving him worried looks every now and then when she thinks he isn't looking. It's the same looks he gets from his classmates sometimes, but they don't try to hide it; he's heard them whisper about how he's never getting them, he'll be the only boy in his class with nothing to show and maybe there's something wrong with him. His grade school friends begin to drift, not wanting to hang around the one boy who still hasn't grown his wings.

The one thing Hinata has is volleyball. It happens one day when he's biking home and everything changes, when he sees the boys soaring on the TV and his face lights up and he thinks hey, I can do that too. Nobody seems to care about their wings, only how high they can jump, how fast they can run, how hard they can hit, and Hinata thinks maybe he's found a place he too can shine.

He works hard, and dreams about the day when he'll have a team, people who don't care about his lack of wings or his height as long as he can play well. He's determined, and no amount of cuts or bruises or sprains deters him, much to his mother's dismay. She always relents when he comes home scuffed up and grinning and going on about how high he managed to hit the ball, and even if he still has no wings and no team he's going to get there someday, he knows it.

Xxx

When Hinata sees Kageyama for the first time, he is in awe. It's before his very first match, and he's dazzled by the blue-black shine of Kageyama's spread wings. They're bigger than anyone's in his class, bigger than Hinata, and they seem to command the attention of everyone in the gym.

Meeting him is another story; in the hallway he finds out that even people with the most beautiful wings can have the shittiest personalities, and he feels a little better about his own lack thereof. Kageyama's sneering at him, and Hinata bristles, but for the first time he doesn't feel like he's being judged because he doesn't have what others do. He can work with this. He can gain equal footing through hard work and it won't matter if he's still wingless if he can just win and show everyone he's as good as they are.

He loses.

He loses, but even then he can still feel the sting of the ball on his palm and the exhilaration of standing on the court, the squeak of sneakers against the floor and the roar of the crowd in his ears, and Hinata is absolutely sure he doesn't want to do anything else.

He runs into Kageyama again afterwards, outside, and his wings seem smaller when he isn't surrounded by anyone, just himself, like Hinata is. Even when he vows to get better, to beat Kageyama, he doesn't know if he'll see him again, but he's determined, more determined than ever, to make his words come true.

Xxx

He unexpectedly meets Kageyama again in his first year of high school; his wings are still absent and he's still not very good at volleyball but one of those, he can fix, and he knows he's going to. He's going to have a team this year, he tells himself, he'll get better, he'll be amazing. He lets the whispers of his classmates roll off his back, telling himself he's just as good as they are even if he's the only student in school with nothing fluttering behind him; it doesn't matter, because he can jump high, he's strong, and he's more determined than any of them. 

Kageyama is different. He still has his great black wings, but they're folded close to his back now, always, and Hinata hasn't once seen them open. He's closed off and rude and yells too much, which really isn't any different from how Hinata remembers, but somehow they click on court, and if he has to work with this asshole to get where he needs to be, he'll swallow his pride and do it. 

He expects Kageyama to look down on him, to comment on how bare he is without anything sprouting from his back, but he doesn't. Kageyama insults him, berates him, tells him he's useless, but he never once says anything about Hinata's lack of wings. In a weird way, Hinata feels like he can handle that. He can handle how shitty Kageyama is, if it means he is going to be amazing. And he is, he tells himself every day, he can do it. He has a team now, and thinking about it makes him feel breathless, to have a place where he belongs and can fit in despite everything else. Even if Kageyama is on that team, even if they have to work together, he can do it.

xxx

They end up falling from enemies to rivals to some sort of friends, and Hinata can't really say how it happens, but he can't say he minds it, either. It's small things, first, like racing to be the first at the gym, pushing each other to work harder, be better, run faster. It evolves to eating lunch together at school, sharing notes and splitting money for meat buns after practice, sitting perched on a bench to eat them together. Hinata ends up feeling more at ease with Kageyama than he does with anyone else, despite the fact that Kageyama's awkward and angry and rude.

Because even through all those things, he promises to make Hinata invincible.

Hinata's never had anyone there before, to reassure him that he'll be fine, he'll be amazing, they'll be amazing, and carry the determination to make it come true. He gets a warm feeling in his chest whenever he remembers, and he doesn't think anyone else could be as good a partner as Kageyama, even if he still sucks sometimes. Hinata always forgives him when Kageyama answers to his pleas of “one more”.

Kageyama isn't that bad, either, as time goes on; Hinata sees him get ruffled, sees him punch the air in excitement, sees him cry in defeat and he's definitely human and maybe not that scary. Well, his smile is, but that's another story. Hinata's started to look forward to seeing him every day, even though he tells himself it's nothing, he's just excited to train and to get better. He doesn't think about Kageyama's voice or his hands or how tall he is.

Despite all this, though, spending all this time together, Hinata has still not seen Kageyama's open wings again. He still has that image in his head from middle school, Kageyama standing tall and imposing with his feathers spread behind him. Kageyama never casually stretches them, like anyone else, and the few times Hinata's brushed against them he flinches away. Hinata wants to ask, but he feels like it would be rude, especially after Kageyama's never asked him about his own wings, or why he doesn't have them. He feels like there's some sort of mutual respect there, even if Kageyama has wings and he doesn't.

He'll settle for shoving down his own burning curiosity in favor of keeping their weird friendship going steady.

Xxx

Hinata finally sees Kageyama's wings one day, after practice, when they're lying together on a grassy hill Hinata's been fond of since he was little. It's sunny and the heat is making them both feel lazy, and there's no school tomorrow. Hinata's on his back with his arms spread, watching the clouds, and Kageyama's facing him on his side with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Does it bother you?”

Hinata looks over, surprised at the sudden question. “Does what bother me?”

“Not having wings.” Kageyama looks awkward, like he's been wanting to ask for a while and finally just went with it. “Not that I care, or anything, you suck at volleyball either way-”

Hinata rolls his eyes and turns over on his side to face Kageyama. “It kind of bothers me sometimes, but since I joined the team it's not so bad. Everyone's really nice and nobody cares that I don't have any if I can jump high and hit the ball.” He grins, genuine, and Kageyama looks away.

“They're not all that great anyway,” he's saying, and Hinata can feel his stomach flutter because this is the first time they've ever discussed wings. He's looking at Kageyama's, folded neatly behind him like always, when he blurts it out.

“I've never seen yours open.”

As soon as he says it he can feel his cheeks heating as the blood rushes to his face, because maybe that was too forward and Kageyama's going to get pissed at him.

The sun seems to be making them both tired, though, because all he does is sit up and sigh, and then he's unfurling his wings and Hinata's staring because they are big and black, just as he remembered, but there's something wrong. Kageyama's right wing is wrong, crooked and it doesn't sit right on his back, and before Hinata realizes it he's reaching forward and touching and Kageyama flinches but doesn't fold them back into himself.

These aren't the wings Hinata remembers.

“Middle school,” Kageyama says, like he's anticipating Hinata's question. “After I played your team.”

“Have you gone to the doctor or something?” Hinata asks, his hand still touching the smooth feathers.

Kageyama shrugs. “I don't really care about it. It's not like I need them.”

They were beautiful, Hinata wants to say, but he doesn't.

Xxx

The first time Kageyama spends the night, Hinata's so thrilled that he can hardly even think about sleeping. They lay together in the darkness, until Hinata's sticking his leg out of the covers and nudging Kageyama's back, below his wings, careful not to touch them. He's learned that the twisted one still hurts, is the reason they're always tight against Kageyama's back, and for some reason it always makes something clench in his chest. He's glad Kageyama isn't the imposing figure he used to be in middle school, but this isn't the way he wants to remember them.

“Are you asleep?” Hinata whispers, straining his eyes to see Kageyama's silhouette in the dark.

“Not when you're kicking me like that.”

Hinata takes that as an open invitation and rolls out of his bed onto the floor. He hesitantly presses one of his hands against Kageyama's wing, the left one, and he feels Kageyama stiffen. It takes a minute, both of them still, before Kageyama's relaxing and Hinata allows himself to move his hand down the cool feathers.

“They're really big,” he says, his voice hushed because it feels like if he talks too loudly, he'll ruin something. “You can...fix them, probably.”

He feels like Kageyama's rolling his eyes when he says he doesn't care, they're just bone and feathers and none of that matters in volleyball, but Hinata's pushing at his shoulders, rolling Kageyama onto his stomach and Kageyama's sentence turns into a flustered protest.

“No, come on, spread them out.” Hinata doesn't like that Kageyama hurts, and he wants to see them.

“It's going to hit your bed, go back to sleep.” Kageyama sounds annoyed, but he relents when Hinata climbs to straddle his back and pounds his fists on Kageyama's shoulders. The boy under him groans and then there's a rustle and he's spreading his wings out, and they're huge, like Hinata remembers, almost bleeding into the dark. Hinata's hands slide from Kageyama's shoulders to the space between his wings and then he presses down, and Kageyama groans again, but it's not of annoyance or pain. Hinata works the muscles with his palms for a moment before tentatively sliding his hands across the bad wing, making sure not to press too hard.

“We'll fix it,” he says, voice hard and determined. “I don't have any, so you have to make up for the both of us. It's stupid if it hurts you every time you open them.”

“That's why I don't open them, dumbass,” Kageyama says, but Hinata can hear something warm in his voice, like he's embarrassed or grateful and it might be wishful thinking, but Hinata doesn't care.

He ends up falling asleep with his hands pressed against Kageyama's folded wings, and when he wakes up he's enveloped in warm smooth black and can hear the heartbeat from Kageyama's chest against his ear.

Xxx

Hinata truly believes he's never going to grow wings. He's done some research on it, and it happens, and to be honest, he's not all that bothered by it. He's lived without them for so long that he can't really imagine it, not being able to roll over onto his back while he sleeps, having to watch out so they don't hit things. He wouldn't be able to sleep with his back up against Kageyama's chest like he does sometimes, lately, when they're both tired and he doesn't want to move.

His back starts to itch one afternoon, when he and Kageyama are eating lunch outside. Kageyama's wings are pressed up tight against his back, like usual, but sometimes he will stretch them out, let Hinata see them, still careful with the one that isn't right. He sits close enough that the feathers will brush Hinata's arm, and it's warm.

“Hinata, stop squirming.” Kageyama's looking at him, grouchy, when Hinata jostles his wing for the fifth time. Hinata can't help it, though, he's got an itch on his back in an impossible place, and he says so. Kageyama just sighs, tells him to turn around and he'll take care of it.

It continues, though, and no amount of Kageyama's hands on his back will take care of it. The team eventually benches him at practice, because he's been hit with the ball twice when he turns to try and scratch at his back, and he really can't help it; if he ignores it, it drives him crazy. Kageyama walks him home, and suggests he should probably see a doctor.

“I think you're probably right,” Hinata says, grudgingly, twisting his head to try and look at his back. “It's starting to hurt, I think I've itched it too much.”

Kageyama glances over, casually, and then he's doing a double take and stopping in his tracks. Hinata looks at him, annoyed, because he wants to get home and put ice on it, or something, and Kageyama's busy staring at him like something is wrong-

“You're bleeding.”

Hinata tries to look behind him again once before there's a sudden stabbing pain, like he's ripped his skin open, and his bike falls out of his hands as his knees buckle. He's vaguely aware that he's not hitting dirt, that he is in warm arms that smell like Kageyama, but the sudden pain is making him screw his eyes shut and whine. He can't focus on anything, he feels like something is clawing at his back.

He makes it home, somehow, winds up in his own bed, and he remembers the feeling of resting his cheek on a sturdy shoulder as he's carried.

Xxx

He has a fever. He is hot and sweaty and his back hurts, hurts, hurts, and he can't focus on anything long enough to worry about missing school or missing practice or his mother putting a damp cloth on his head. His sister comes in and out, patting his cheeks and telling him to get better, and he is able to hold off long enough to smile at her and tell her not to worry before he's out of it again. There is someone else, too, he thinks, tall and dark and familiar-smelling, smoothing the hair away from his face during the times his parents have to work.

Most of the time his head is hazy with aching pain, and he's woken periodically to sip water, soup, anything he can manage to eat before he slips again. Hinata has been sick before, with chickenpox, the flu, really bad colds; this is worse than all of those combined, and he is miserable. When he's aware enough, all he thinks about is wanting to play volleyball, if his team is mad at him for not being at practice, and he tries to stagger out of bed a few times before he's firmly placed back in it.

There is screaming and yelling sometimes, too, and Hinata thinks it might be coming from himself, but he isn't sure. Whenever it happens, when he's shocked awake by the noise, there is someone there to pet his hair and tell him it's alright, go back to sleep.

Hinata is allowed to sleep on his side, or on his stomach, but whenever he tries to roll onto his back, he is rolled over again. He feels cool cloths wipe up the blood that sometimes makes his shirt stick to his too-warm skin. It feels like something is clawing its way out, and he wakes up from a nightmare once to find Kageyama in a chair beside his bed, face planted downwards on the covers. He thinks he must be dreaming, because why would Kageyama be in his room right now, but it's a better dream than he'd been having, so he takes it, reaching out for Kageyama's hand splayed out on the sheets. It's warm and solid as he laces their fingers together and goes back to sleep. 

The rest of his dreams are pleasant.

Xxx

It's been a week when Hinata's fever finally breaks, and he's aware enough to push himself up, groaning. He feels gross, like he needs to take fifteen showers to wash off all the sweat, and his back is heavy. He looks around, but there's nobody in the room; maybe it is safe to get up. The clock and the dim light tell him it's late in the evening, so his parents are probably at work.

Staggering out of bed, Hinata catches himself on the wall. He feels dizzy, like after being sick for a long time and finally getting better; his balance is off, but he doesn't hurt anymore, so he thinks he's starting to be okay. He hasn't been out of bed in ages, and his muscles twitch to move, to jump. He misses his team.

He's creaking open the door, ready to head into the kitchen for something to eat because he is starving, when he hits a wall. A very warm, solid wall, soft cloth and an annoyed grunt.

“Dumbass.” It's the first time he's heard this voice in days and his head darts up, staring in awe at someone who probably should not be in his house right now. Kageyama's face is shadowed until he reaches over and flips the light switch, causing Hinata to blink. Yes, there's Kageyama, wings folded neatly behind him and carrying some sort of tray; Hinata peers up at it, trying to see if maybe it's food.

Kageyama nudges him inside, sets the tray on the floor and pushes him back towards the bed. He's about to let himself fall, because it's still an effort to walk, but Kageyama catches his arm.

“Get on your stomach,” he says, face commanding, and Hinata scowls but does as he says, although he's not sure why. He realizes for the first time that he's shirtless when he feels a wet cloth against his back; it feels nice. He closes his eyes.

Kageyama is grumbling as his hands spread Hinata out on the bed, and then the cloth moves up; something is wrong. Hinata can feel it, definitely, the water dripping because it hasn't been wrung out properly, but it's not against his back, or anywhere on his skin. It feels foreign and he nearly knocks Kageyama over struggling to sit up.

“Kageyama!” His voice is too loud and Kageyama winces. “There's something...”

“Are you serious? You just noticed?” Kageyama's pushing him back down with one of his hands, warm against Hinata's damp skin. “Your wings grew in, dumbass.”

xxx

Kageyama has been taking care of him, he finds out, when his parents are at work. Hinata can tell by the grouchy look and the flush on his cheeks that he hadn't wanted to mention it. Hinata realizes one of the voices he'd been hearing, low and gruff, was Kageyama. He hadn't been dreaming.

The feeling of wings on his back is weird, uncomfortable, and the feeling of Kageyama's hands on them is even weirder and more uncomfortable, but in a way that's not entirely unpleasant. He squirms too much; Kageyama grumbles that it was easier when he was still asleep. Hinata does his best to stay still, even when it tickles, or feels weird, as Kageyama cleans his wings off. There was a lot of blood, he's said, and Hinata blanches. He's never been very good with blood.

“It's mostly gone, now.” Kageyama finishes cleaning and ruffles the feathers, soft and new, dry with another towel. “I can't believe even your wings are tiny.”

Hinata gets the first glimpse of them the next morning, when Kageyama has gone home and he's allowed to get out of bed and take a bath. The skin on his back still feels raw, like he's scraped and bruised, and wings are like having another set of limbs that he has to concentrate on moving, or not moving. They are small, smaller than Kageyama's, but still decently-sized; white and gray dapple, and he grins to himself in the mirror as he flaps them. They aren't big or intimidating like Kageyama's, but he likes them.

When he is finally allowed to return to school the next day, he finds that his teammates like them, too. Kageyama is quiet, watching on in apparent disinterest, while Hinata shows off his new assets and his friends coo over him.

He wants to know what Kageyama thinks.

Xxx

“They suit you.”

He and Kageyama are on the hill again, side-by-side. Kageyama's staring at the grass between his legs, brushing over it with one of his hands. Hinata beams at him, and it makes his chest feel so much warmer than even the praise of his teammates had.

The conversation drops of there, or Hinata thinks it does, at least. There's a five minute silence before Kageyama continues it.

“Can I touch them?” He's still looking at the grass, picking individual blades out with his fingers; he has amassed a decent pile. Hinata watches, nods, and then says yes, because he doesn't think Kageyama can see him the way he's staring steadfastly at that pile of grass.

He ends up on his stomach again, which has become more frequent lately, head pillowed on his arms as Kageyama hovers on his knees over him. There is a brush of fingers, and Hinata's eyes slide closed; he remembers this touch hazily, from when he was out of it. It's familiar, strong and awkward and gentle. Very Kageyama.

And it feels good; it feels amazing. The way Kageyama's fingers carefully brush through the feathers makes him sigh into his skin, the wings on his back twitching. He thinks if there was one thing he was missing out on, it's this, Kageyama's fingers on him, smoothing and touching.

“Now you,” Hinata says, when his hands still, and he ends up having to force Kageyama to the ground again, kneeling on his lower back. Kageyama mutters and refuses, wings still tight against his back.

Hinata is not one to give up. He prods and pulls, gently, until they are unfurling beneath him, huge and beautiful, and Hinata thinks he's seen these once or twice in a dream. The hurt one doesn't phase him anymore, though it does make him a little sad, but it's part of Kageyama, and he likes every bit of him, he thinks. Even the mean parts, just a little less.

He tells him that, the way he smooths his hands along the feathers, to the tips, or as much as he can manage; the span is greater than his arms, and he ends up draped across Kageyama's back, feeling warm and content. He can feel Kageyama's heartbeat between his wings.

Xxx

When they kiss, finally, finally, it is not at all how Hinata had imagined.

It's even better.

It's fumbling and awkward, and what's worse, maybe, is that it's in the middle of the court. Hinata's on his feet, landing after a perfect hit, and when he jumps and punches the air he can feel his wings flutter unconsciously. Kageyama strides over to him, and Hinata beams, raising his hand for a high-five that never comes.

Instead, there is a pair of soft lips against his own.

There's some whistling and a holler he thinks is from Tanaka, and then everything is blocked out, the light, the faces of his teammates, by big, black wings, sleek feathers, and Kageyama kisses him again. His face is red, from his nose to his cheeks to his ears, and he tells Hinata good job. He looks like he wants to hide, so Hinata kisses him back.

Xxx

Hinata doesn't know if Kageyama's wings will be exactly the way they were in middle school again. He thinks they are getting better, with use and stretching and late-night massages. It doesn't really matter, because this is the way he wants to remember Kageyama, the way he wants to see Kageyama, a little uncertain of himself and his big wings, one crooked. Hinata thinks they are absolutely beautiful, and he says so; he is rewarded with one of those big wings right in his face, sputtering feathers out of his mouth.

He thinks their wings are both perfect, Hinata's small, late-blooming ones, Kageyama's big and uneven ones, one tucked closer in than the other; when people see them, they know who they belong to, they know what they can do and will do, together, and that's what matters. That, and when Kageyama whispers to him, every so often, that he is amazing. Not his wings, but Hinata himself.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading my embarrassing fics ＿ﾉ乙(､ﾝ､)_


End file.
